To Be Where You Are: My Review

To Be Where You Are

About the Book:

After twelve years of wrestling with the conflicts of retirement, Father Tim Kavanagh realizes he doesn't need a steady job to prove himself. Then he's given one. As for what it proves, heaven only knows.

Millions of Karon fans will be thrilled that it’s life as usual in the wildly popular Mitford series: A beloved town character lands a front-page obituary, but who was it, exactly, who died? And what about the former mayor, born the year Lindbergh landed in Paris, who’s still running for office? All this, of course, is but a feather on the wind compared to Muse editor J.C. Hogan’s desperate attempts to find a cure for his marital woes. Will it be high-def TV or his pork chop marinade?

 

In fiction, as in real life, there are no guarantees. 

 

Twenty minutes from Mitford at Meadowgate Farm, newlyweds Dooley and Lace Kavanagh face a crisis that devastates their bank account and impacts their family vet practice. 

 

But there is still a lot to celebrate, as their adopted son, Jack, looks forward to the most important day of his life—with great cooking, country music, and lots of people who love him. Happily, it will also be a day when the terrible wound in Dooley’s biological family begins to heal because of a game—let’s just call it a miracle—that breaks all the rules.

 

In To Be Where You Are, Jan Karon weaves together the richly comic and compelling lives of two Kavanagh families, and a cast of characters that readers around the world now love like kin.

My Comments:

I've read most of the Mitford books and like many long-time fans will, I'm sure, I grabbed this one when it became available (I got it on NetGalley).  I wanted to visit with old friends and watch them have new adventures.  However, I'm about a third of the way in and I have no desire to finish.  I think every person in Mitford has at least made an appearance and if  you haven't read the other books, they will mean very little to you--they meant little to me because it has been a couple of years since I read the last book.  I'm hoping that by the end of the book Lace finds out that she really can have a baby, but other than that, well, so far nothing in this book has grabbed me and I'm having trouble keeping people straight, or even figuring out who is on stage right now.  

Thanks to the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade C (real Mitford fans may enjoy it, but don't bother with this if you haven't read the others.  

It's Monday: What Are You Reading

I guess I'm getting back into it; this is my second week in a row joining Kathryn and the gang  and since I'm off tomorrow I can spend more time reading other people's posts and finding new reads.

This week I added seven books to my NetGalley shelf, so I guess I'll have to spend some of the time actually reading books.

I plan to review the financial books on my financial blog, where, by the way, I recently wrote about helping the victims of Hurricane Harvey.    

I've started To Be Where You Are and I'm finding it slow.  Fr. Tim has aged, along with the people of Mitford and everything just seems, well, old.  

I published two reviews this week:

My Review

My Review

I'd really like to know what those of you who have read The Giver and the other books in the series think about the question I asked at the end of the review.

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day and gets in some quality reading time.  

Review: Something Like Happy

Something Like Happy

About the Book:

This joyful, poignant and deeply uplifting novel celebrates the importance of living each day to the fullest through the tale of two very different women—one at a crossroads in life, one given three months to live—who team up to participate in the “100 happy days” challenge and embark on an unforgettable journey that brings each of them redemption, love, and happiness.

With her marriage over and her career stalled out, thirty-something Annie’s life is at a standstill. Then she meets colorful, upbeat Polly, whose recent cancer diagnosis has left her determined to make the most of every moment. Polly sets a challenge: learn to be happy in just 100 days. From dancing in fountains to riding rollercoasters, Annie is drawn into Polly’s world, discovering friends, hope and even love. But what happens when time runs out and she’s tested to her limits once again?

My Comments:

This is a story about two women.  Annie has lost her life and Polly has been given three months to live.  

Annie was the happily married mother of a beautiful baby boy until he died, she fell into depression, and her husband left her. Since that time she has been existing--working a job she hated, sharing a depressing apartment with a roommate she really doesn't know and taking care of her mother, who has early-onset Alzheimer's.  She has no friends and she has no fun in her life. 

Polly had it all too--great job, handsome husband, great friends and a supportive family.  However when "Bob", her brain tumor, made himself known, she decided that she would spend her last few months grabbing life, not waiting for death.  

We follow Annie and Polly though several weeks of doing things they have dreamt of and never done or things Polly wants to do at least once more.  Polly pushes Annie and others outside their comfort zones and gets them to grab for things that make them happy.

The book is set in England and uses British terms like "jumper" or "NHS".  

Polly's mother is a churchgoer but Polly has not been during her adult life.  Now that she is dying, Polly can't decide whether she'd rather believe, or not.  

While there are no bedroom scenes in the book, two of the characters are homosexual.  

I smiled, laughed and cried while reading this book.  I highly recommend it and give it an A.  I'd like to thank the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley.  

Son by Lois Lowry: My Review

Son

About the Book:

They called her Water Claire. When she washed up on their shore, no one knew that she came from a society where emotions and colors didn’t exist. That she had become a Vessel at age thirteen. That she had carried a Product at age fourteen. That it had been stolen from her body. Claire had a son. But what became of him she never knew. What was his name? Was he even alive? She was supposed to forget him, but that was impossible. Now Claire will stop at nothing to find her child, even if it means making an unimaginable sacrifice.

Son thrusts readers once again into the chilling world of the Newbery Medal winning book, The Giver,　as well as Gathering Blue and Messenger where a new hero emerges. In this thrilling series finale, the startling and long-awaited conclusion to Lois Lowry’s epic tale culminates in a final clash between good and evil.

My Comments:

SPOILER ALERT

I found this one surfing through my library's Overdrive portfolio.  I had read the others in the series so I decided to read this.

For those not familiar with the series, it starts with The Giver, which is set in the future, after a catastrophic war.  The characters live in a technologically advanced community that has given up emotion and individual freedom.  No one suffers pain or want, and everything is decided for everyone.  Two of the characters in The Giver were Jonas and Gabe.  Jonas was chosen to be the only person in the community who was told of its history, and Gabe was a baby who could not conform--and we learn that in that community non-conformity was a capital crime, even if the "criminal" was an infant.  

Son is the story of Gabe's mother--the woman who gave birth to him.  Certain young women were chosen to be birth mothers--it was their job for a few years to carry three "products" to maturity.  Once those products were born, they were raised in a community nursery for a year or so and then given to couples (the governement decided who coupled) to raise to maturity.  

Gabe's mother had problems with the birth and was declared ineligible for future childbearing, but the powers that be forgot to tell her to take her hormone (and feeling) blocking pills and she seeks out her son.  She learns that he is no longer in the community and goes looking for him.

One of the characters is "Trademaster" who had caused disruption in the community featured in another book two of this series.  Basically, he would grant people's wishes, but in return would talk something valuable from them, and in doing so caused misery and dissention.  In Son he grants Claire's wish to see her son, but takes her youth. 

At the end of the book Gabe confronts Trademaster and finds him to be pure evil, not human at all, and destroys him. I found that to be a throught-provoking conclusion.  Gabe started life in a community where no one had to trade--everyone was the same, all choices were made, suffering was absent. By destroying Trademaster, did he destroy evil?  Is it possible to destroy evil without destroying choice?  

While there were parts of the book that dragged, overall I enjoyed it and give it a B.